പേജുകള്‍‌

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Director: Denis CôtéCountry: Canada | FranceRuntime: 72 min
Animals/People: Along the rhythm of the changing seasons they watch one
another. Bestiary unfolds like a filmed picture book about mutual
observation, about peculiar perception. A contemplation of a stable
imbalance, and of lose, tranquil and indefinable elements.

A drawing course, a safari park and a taxidermist’s workshop: three
settings in which humans and animals meet. The focus of observation is
on relationships of sight and perception, which often reflect unequal
power structures at the same time. In the process, the film also seems
to be considering the question of how animals can be filmed.

It’s nothing like the technically high-powered animal films of today,
whose almighty cameras transcend the boundaries of water, land and air
and no longer know nature’s secrets. Sober visual observation without
commentary, with an often static camera watching proceedings from a
fixed position with a keen eye for form and movement: horns in front of a
concrete wall, nervous zebras’ legs in the cramped stalls, the
precision contained in the taxidermist’s skillful hand movements.

Carefully considered shots which allow the viewer time to reflect on
beauty and the unfamiliar, on this domesticated wilderness in the midst
of civilisation. This all allows a form of choreography to emerge to the
accompaniment of the surrounding noises, a cinematic bestiary in which
man too takes his place among the stoic, impassive, impatient, wild and
rebellious animals.

In the fictional Nagashima prefecture, Ono Yôichi (Murakami Jun) lives a
peaceful life on his family's small farm, with wife Izumi (Kagurazaka
Megumi) and parents Yasuhiko (Natsuyagi Isao) and Chieko (Ôtani Naoko).
One day, an earthquake disrupts the calm, causing the reactor at a
nearby nuclear power plant to explode. The Nagashima community is
directly within the twenty-kilometer evacuation radius—except for the
Ono farm. Haunted by memories of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, in
which evacuees were forced out of their homes permanently, the Onos are
faced with a terrible decision: stay and risk the possibility of
radiation poisoning, or leave the home their family has spent
generations building.

Out of concern for their unborn child, Yôichi and Izumi reluctantly opt
to leave the farm, while Yasuhiko and Chieko remain. Relocated to a
nearby urban community, the younger couple try to rebuild their lives.
But the newly pregnant Izumi is plagued by paranoia, unconvinced that
her new home is any safer from airborne contaminants than the farm. Back
in Nagashima, meanwhile, where Yôichi's aged parents are being
prevailed upon by authorities to voluntarily relocate, Yasuhiko's true
motives for staying are revealed...